Love, War, and Hogwarts
by Mitch's Eyebrow
Summary: Hogwarts has always been a wonderful place for Ascella Westbrook. Its an escape from her broken home, a place where anything can happen. She is perfectly happy to spend her school days not making any waves. That is, until Scorpius Malfoy arrives.
1. An Introduction

Hogwarts has always been a wonderful place. Quidditch, the food, teachers, and even classes have always made Ascella feel at home. Well, as at home as she has ever felt. She wishes she could stay in the castle all year, and never has to go home. Going home means facing her dad, and that is NOT something she wants to do.

It hasn't always been this way. When Ascella was little, things were much better. Her mom wasn't drinking. Her dad…well, he has never been around as much as she would like. Instead, she gets to have Cyris. He used to be nice to Ascella. He would take her on walks when her mother was drunk, buy her the candy she never would have gotten otherwise. He would often take her shopping, using what little money he had managed to save to buy her a nice dress for the first day of school, or getting her band merch, seemingly for no reason other than to please her. Looking back on it now, Ascella realized that what her stepfather had done was squander what few dollars they earned on sweet nothings. Nothing he bought her lasted. Nothing she got took the edge off the pain for more than a few hours. Maybe if he had used the money to get her mom help, to get her to the hospital all those times she passed out on the couch. But none of that matters now.

At Hogwarts, everything is better. She can forget that she comes from a broken home. None of her friends knew about her past, and why should she tell them? It would just make things awkward, like it always did. She would tell them, they would offer meaningless apologies for something they had no control over, and from then on they would offer to buy things for her. None of them understands that the offers of gifts don't make her feel any better. If anything, they make things harder on her once she gets home. Her siblings would find whatever sunshine she has, and use it's light so much that eventually it would break, or get lost, or Cyris would take it away. It was easier for Ascella to keep the memories of the past just that, memories.

Usually, none of this bothered Ascella. She was fine with her clothes and books being second-hand, and never having as many presents at Christmastime as the rest of the students. She would hold her head high and think about how lucky she was to have escaped her house, and know that in a few years, she would have a job, and be able to send her siblings nice presents when they get to Hogwarts. She could picture their faces alight with joy when they found the small mountain of presents at the foot of their bunks. She could already feel the warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes from doing something nice for other people.

Ascella was perfectly happy at Hogwarts. She couldn't imagine something more wonderful existing in the world. At least, not until Scorpius Malfoy arrived.


	2. Pride and Potions Class

At first, Scorpius Malfoy seemed like an oddity, and not a particularly interesting one at that. He had transferred to Hogwarts from Pigfarts, a wizarding school on Mars. He was constantly complaining about how life at Pigfarts was soooo much better than life at Hogwarts, how the headmaster, Rumbleroar, was soooo much better than Professor McGonagall, and how even the food at Hogwarts paled in comparison to that of Pigfarts. In some ways, he reminded Ascella of her younger brother, Aster. Both were constantly eating and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting classmates; however, Ascella suspected that there was more to Scorpius than just his troublemaking ways. Her suspicions were proven correct when out of the blue, Scorpius Malfoy decided to kill her.

At least, that's what she thought. He had begun hanging around her more and more lately, and one occasion, he had followed her to class all day (although, this may be because they shared most of their classes). You see, both were sorted into Slytherin house, and despite Slytherin having a reputation of nastiness, Ascella believed that it and its students were grossly underappreciated. Not everyone in Slytherin was a bad seed, just like not everyone in Ravenclaw is an academic genius, no matter how much Ravenclaw students would like the inflated tales of their glory to be true.

Ascella's friend Kara, for example, was forever struggling with her studies. Try as she might, she just could not do well at anything that required intense study, unlike her multi-talented housemates. Kara couldn't see why the Sorting Hat had decided to place her in Ravenclaw. However, just because she couldn't see it, doesn't mean there's nothing there to see. Ascella could tell that Kara had an amazing ability to manipulate the currents of social interaction around her; if Kara needed a pencil, there was a student ready to give her one. If Kara was walking through the halls of Hogwarts and saw a student being bullied, she could intercede with such tact and grace that the bully would walk away, cowed. If Kara was mad at someone, they better watch their back, because everyone at Hogwarts could turn against them if Kara willed it.

Scorpius is a lot like Kara. He has a reputation as a bad boy because of who his father is; yet underneath the tough exterior, he's really a sweet boy who only wants to impress his dad.

Potions is Ascella's kingdom. Anything potion you can think of, Ascella can find a way to create it. Professor Snape was, as usual, impressed with Ascella's essay on the properties and uses of Artemisia, or as impressed as Professor Snape ever was. Because of this, Snape decided to partner her with his least promising student, Scorpius, in the hopes that some of her talent might rub off on him. This did NOT go over well with Ascella, as she had become decidedly creeped out by Scorpius' apparent obsession with her. As he shyly walked over to her cauldron, however, her fears were forgotten.

"Hi," he all but whispered to her as he began to set up his ingredients.

"Hi! I'm Ascella Westbrook!" she replied, happy to have met the mysterious Scorpius at long last.

"I know who you are. I've known for a while, I just haven't been able to come talk to you," he murmured, still at such a low volume Ascella had to lean close to make out what he was saying.

"Why? Surely I'm not scary!" Ascella questioned worriedly.

"Well, my Auntie Bellatrix told me I'm to interact with anyone who isn't a pureblood, as I am. Its not that I don't like everybody, but I'm afraid of what she'll do to me if I don't comply with her demands. My father tried to interject, but Auntie Bellatrix just cursed him silent," Scorpius sighed. "I love my family, but sometimes I wish that I had been raised in a normal family, away from the Dark influences and muggle haters."


End file.
